The Moment You Know
by satomobile
Summary: Tenzin attempts to pin down the momentous occasion in which he realized he was in love with Lin. For Linzin Week 2.0 on tumblr. Prompt: Momentous.


Falling in love for the first time is momentous, but as far as Tenzin can tell, it is not a single moment. There was no second suspended in time when their eyes met, the heavens opened, the world froze, and a bolt of knowing filled his insides and set his heart to pumping. It was not love at first sight as the story often goes- he first laid eyes on her at the tender age of one and it is safe to say no sparks were involved. It was not any one instance he could clearly recall or analyze. There was an awful lot about this momentous event in his life that he simply did not know, but there was one very important fact he understood and knew from the very depths of his soul: he was, in all his ignorance, completely in love with Lin Beifong.

It was this unquantifiable fact that began nagging him on a gray afternoon in Republic City. The head bookkeeper for the Council of the United Republic, Arun, announced to his co-workers that morning he was engaged to be married. Tenzin readily congratulated the young man, shaking his hand and offering well-wishes.

"You know, I knew I was going to marry her the day we met. I guess it was love at first sight," Arun told him.

Tenzin nodded absently, taking the expression with a grain of salt, until Arun expanded on his comment, "I'm sure you know what I mean. A man doesn't forget something that momentous."

It was then that Tenzin realized if he had ever known, he had absolutely forgotten.

He sat deep in thought at his desk that afternoon as the ill-tempered weather grumbled low threats of rain outside his office window. He should have been reviewing his council papers, but his mind was pre-occupied with attempting to remember the exact moment he fell in love with Lin.

At age thirteen he wrote her a letter, confessing that he wanted her to be his girlfriend. He read it hundreds of times, obsessing over the punctuation and grammar, before it was deemed good (persuasive) enough to deliver to the girl of his pre-teen dreams.

His deepest boyhood feelings bled from him as ink on paper and when he was finally prepared to surprise Lin with his masterful prose, Bumi found it. It was quickly converted from a romantic confessional to a bargaining chip and it lost it's persuasive power when read aloud in Bumi's mocking voice. Luckily, he had only truly confessed to "liking" Lin in this note. Which certainly ruled it out as momentous. Embarrassing, sure, but it was not the moment he knew for certain he was in love.

He wondered if it had been around the time of their first kiss, passionate and unexpected. Lin had admitted something of herself that night. She told him about the pressure she felt in life, the crushing weight of a destiny she could not escape. In that moment Tenzin knew that she could relate to him in a way that others could not. He channeled all his empathy and understanding into that kiss. They shared a common bond and his body yearned to personify it, make it physical. It was blissful and terrifying, but was it love? He couldn't say for sure.

Properly frustrated by his inability to remember such an important moment in his life, Tenzin stood, gathered his papers and made his way to the door. He was too sidetracked now to focus on work much, perhaps a bite to eat would help.

* * *

He watched Lin across their dining room table as she carefully gathered one, two, three dried and deadly-looking red chili peppers between her chopsticks and drew the suicidal bite into her mouth.

Her eyes flicked up, catching his as she chewed. Though her eyes watered and her cheeks flushed, she still had it in her to quirk one challenging eyebrow at his horrified expression.

"How can you eat that?" he wondered, somewhere between impressed and appalled.

"It's not that hot," she insisted, with a shrug and a suspiciously long sip of water.

"You missed the noodles," he joked, pointing at her bowl.

She gave him a laugh, pinched the sticks between her fingers and dug around for another pepper in her bowl, "You're missing out, my love," she sighed breezily.

Her mouth opened to continue making her point, or perhaps just to allow some cool air in, when Tenzin cut her off.

"When did you know?" he asked.

"When did I know about your impressively dull taste buds?" she clarified.

"No," he returned quickly, "and my taste buds are fine, thank you. I'm asking when did you know that you were in love. What was the moment it occurred to you that you loved me?"

Her eyes widened slightly as if to intone that she thought he was getting a little too philosophical for dinner, "I don't know."

"I can't remember either," he confessed, "I heard someone say today that they fell in love at first sight and it's been bothering me all day. I should know."

With an exasperated sigh Lin's wrist hit the table indelicately, chopsticks still in hand, "You're ridiculous."

"Why? Don't you think it is important to be aware of when something so momentous happened in your life?"

"Always searching for enlightenment," she commented dryly with a roll of her eyes.

"Self awareness is key," Tenzin recited.

"Look, Tenzin," Lin groaned, "Some things just are. You don't have to research it and analyze it with in an inch of it's life. You love me, I love you- there doesn't have to be some kind of inquest or definition involved. It just happened at some undefined point. Sorry."

Her rolling eyes locked on Tenzin's stunned expression as she breathed out the last word of her rant. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, entertained by her outburst and marginally more amused at the grudging apology she concluded it with.

Her face scrunched up, letting out a small snort of a laugh when she realized how caustic her declaration of love sounded, "I'm sorry," she apologized again as she giggled feverishly, "I didn't mean to sound so..."

"Angry?" Tenzin provided with a chuckle.

She nodded, catching her breath.

Tenzin's eyebrows went up, "Well maybe I didn't need to analyze it before, but I guess now would be a good time to start questioning why I love you..." he chided her.

"Oh shut up," she laughed waving a dismissive hand, "you know what I meant."

He did.

When dinner ended, Lin made her way to the other room to read and Tenzin stayed behind, washing up the dishes. No amount of well-intended teasing could take his mind off this question. When? When did it happen? He pondered it as he scrubbed, rinsed, and dried. He concluded that perhaps he had been approaching the subject all wrong. Maybe he needed to brush up on the meaning of momentous in order to really understand the moment he sought.

Just before bed, he pulled a rather large and dusty dictionary from his bookshelf and tucked it under his arm. He made his way to their bedroom to find Lin already tucked cozily under the blankets and drifting toward sleep.

He pulled the blankets back, kissing her shoulder quickly as he settled himself beside her, "I love you," he whispered.

"But... why?" Lin mocked, without opening her eyes. He simply grunted at her jibe an opened the book in his lap, flipping around for the definition of momentous.

Finally, the pages parted of their own accord to the exact page he desired. Tucked in, near the crease of the book was a small piece of paper that held this page, which read in Lin's sloping hand: _I KNEW IT!_

He burst out laughing and her eyes flew open, "I knew you would look it up! You are so ridiculous!" she shouted, slapping his arm.

"I knew it," she repeated between a barrage of their combined laughter.

It was then that he knew it too. It wasn't any single moment. It was every moment. It was the moment she knew him so well, it was all the moments surrounding this one. It was the collection of these precious and wonderful moments that defined his love for Lin.

And that was all the answer he needed.


End file.
